You know, all this trash that's being dumped right at cigarettes' butts is great, having the corporations pay off big time, and the human race getting a little bit back out of the mega-mind control that's been going on ever since Bogy first mumbled something black and white, but what about the booze, baby? I never hear about the Booze. I want to hear something about The BOOOOZE.

If the point of restricting cigarettes is that they kill, in or out of your mouth, it seems to me that beer, hard stuff and wine does just as much damage. But it's never talked about. It's treated as dramatic by the poets who want to lead cool, self-destructive lives; it's let on tv as the most imaginative of the commercials (unfortunately, the biggest bucks hire the cleverest gag writers); and it's not an in thing to talk about booze killing. But it takes the lives of 1000s of people each year: this second hand smoke of having a woozy hand behind the wheel pick off pedestrians.And it kills the drinkers. Is it a slower death? I thought lung cancer tookjust as long as dying from a drowned liver? How come drinks and smokesaren't on the same level?

Of course drinking is a social activity; and sometimes you look coolerlighting up by yourself. Safety and acceptance in numbers? Maybe that's it. It can't be the cash. Cigars, cigarettes, and pipes bring in just as much cash from the zombies as the drinking does. Of course, you can drink faster than you can smoke. Maybe that's it. You can get plastered. And it's an alternative to pills, cheaper even, if you buy by the bottle instead of haunting pubs. Yeah, that's right, there are no smoking clubs anymore, are there? Or were there Ever in the US? Besides, other things went on in smoking clubs besides smoking anyway. But on a college campus, you can set up shop to look grown-up, be a real man and push back a lot of liquor in one swaying sitting. If you're a three pack a day man, no one really cares. They can't watch you smoke them all, can they?

It's got to be looked at in a different light, or the same light, drinking. People will have to consider that what they do will ultimately harm another person at some point. Non-smokers could hold their noses and put up an unamused wall of trashy looks and uninterest. But until we start holding our noses at the drink that could hit us later, it's not going to happen, nothing's going to change. You can smell the smoke on you immediately. It hurts your senses. It's dramatic, you See what it does, it rises, it causes coughs Immediately. What does that second hand drink do? I guess it's going to have to do Something to get us concerned enough. Either that or hit a Mayor's son. Yeah, that's it, jocks. Swerve for some Names.

Science continues to overtake God everyday, forcing more people out of the reverence place, into more Sunday morning tv programming. The young people continue to disbelieve because there hasn't been any hearsay since the New Testament got written. The old people who still go to worship are lucky, because they had fewer choices than we do now. Yes, fewer choices could be better, it made life simpler, and when there were fewer things to worry about, you could put your trust in a God of your own making, or that word of mouth God that was supposed to make everything better, because the solution was simple. Fewer answers to worry about back then too, since science was still a babe, one that didn't look very fine, and there wasn't enough faith in this new god to prove itself to anyone except Future Generations.

So why is the church still around after all this time, in the age of the laptop computer and Monostat 7? The aim has gone from being a vengeful and powerful God into being a being of peace. More problems, more choices in the world means the old ways of thinking need a place to gather, replenish outdated ideals, and go back into the new world for another week, refreshed, and able to see life for what it isn't. A world under God, where everything happens for a reason.

But church is more than that, on the other hand. Most churches don't just pass the plate around for the pastor's paycheck and the rent. They do some good in the community. They preach forgiveness and tolerance, and do nothing destructive. They give to the needy, and help out in times of crisis and natural disaster. This is what Really keeps the church alive in our modern day; humans are naturally greedy creatures. If the church, "empowered" by "God", didn't do anything for Them, it would be just another institution that's gone the way of all drive-ins.

That is a good thing. Because there isn't enough goodness or graciousness in the world. It all comes from the people who feel good enough to give it, not from a named power that sits up somewhere in the clouds and dictates random order. People are left to people, and there are a lot of nuts out there. Bombs and childhood traumas blubbing up and people that just click and mow down some long-lasted lives. Not to mention the wars between God's chosen, each thinking the other wrong, each calling their holy war necessary, not caring who is ultimately hurt. This alone is enough of a reason to Know that there's nothing up, down or beside us at every turn, there to save us from ourselves, eternal Anything, or an immediate sin just because we've prayed to the right entity.

But if there's a god, Greek, Roman or Albanian, or not, what's wrong with people believing there is? If it keeps them in line, nothing. The point of God is keeping everyone in line, letting them live good lives. The evil of the coin is those people who think their lives are preordained so that Nothing they do matters, and therefore, they can do Anything. Then there are those Gods who don't seem to care about anyone except the believers. The religious nuts of these higher powers won't rest, some of them anyway, until all infidels go the way of the panda bear: just slow enough so that the pain Feels good. If there is any argument for whether or not God SHOULD exist, I'd say the cons far outweigh the pros. There are enough problems in the world already without getting supernatural. Check your guns with your Bibles at the door, and come in for a nice game of T2 in the lobby of the movies. It's going to be more fun watching the latest Sharon Stone sin than worrying about an eternity that's taking forever to prove itself.

friend of mine was over the wall yesterday. the wall's a place that sells the most sell out music. go to the mall, go to the wall, see what all the corporations want you to buy. it's the place to find out what's cool by the absence of cool things.

hung out at the mall eating a corn dog that tasted like a wrestler's middle finger, and tried on 2 sets of black Payless shoes. would've been 3, but you know. missed the computer.

so to make myself feel better, went to the game shop and looked at all the stuff that wasn't facing me. see, a biz has to pay more $$ to get their games facing front. you don't have to pay any extra to have just the spine showing on the shelf. so i was overlooking all the air sim games in favor of mysteries. i didn't like the Doom clones because guns were so cheap, i could do the real thing for real if i really wanted to. might as well play something you won't get anywhere else. i mean, i could always hijack a plane. mysteries take strategy and time.

Under a Killing Moon. ever heard of it? any good? i don't know. 20 bucks.

i went to the bargain rack again; my major hang out. there was some weird game in there called Your Mother Smells. $2. so i bought it.

said on the back it was supposed to be about this mom who can tell what her kid's Really doing. a mystery. see, her kid doesn't go to school. so she has to find out what the hell he does all day. and she's got this Big funny nose, and no arms. weird. and as soon as you find out what your kid's doing (drugs, numbers, programming http, or playing spin the bottle opener), you go into the bedroom. you have another kid. then you play again.

it took me 5 minutes to finish the 3 kid, and i was Bored. i'm always BORED. i get on my bike and i run into a tree. then i limp back to my computer, click on the extra hard drive and start clicking my mouse while my cat fills up the holes in my speakers with loose hair.

went back to the mall. no mall. i thought - what the hell? just what i said. NO MALL. it wasn't there anyway. i was there, like, 15 hours ago. there was a sign on one of the pulled up boulders. they left a note for me. 'dear wineburger. we've moved. no, don't look for us. you never buy anything anyway.'

i went home and got the receipt for Your Mother Smells. i had to get my mall back. i couldn't believe this. i couldn't - i mean - this - you know, this was my Life. god.

then receipt blew out of my hands.

life over.